Japan, Gender, Media, Culture

Columbus 21, You’re Doing it Right

Let me just start this out by saying that I’m not an English teacher. I do not have a degree in education or English (though I considered an English major).

However, I spend an obscene amount of time in Japanese public schools, and the English-language textbooks are pretty consistently lacking. For example, the English taught often has a lot of Japanized grammar, like the tendency to use “Do you know OOO?” for “Do you know her personally?” AND “Have you heard of her?” AND “Are you familiar with her body of work?” (New Horizons). This makes sense in Japanese, but in English the context determines how specific you need to be. There’s unnatural phrasing right and left, like big letters and small letters for capital letters/uppercase and lowercase (Eigo Note). Not understanding that cake is collective (“I’ll have the cake.” “I like cake.” “Have a piece of cake.” “Would you like some cake?” NOT “Here are cakes!” when referring to one cake sliced into pieces.) And don’t get me started on Shougakusei no Eigo, with Santa Claus’s “I am from Finland! I live in Snowland! I have presents! I like children all over the world!” or Kintaro’s statement that he has a masakari. You have an axe, son, because we are speaking English.

Today I went to work and found a set of 2012 Columbus 21 junior high English books on my desk. I read through the Columbus books today, and these are actually good textbooks. The English is, by and large, natural. The characters sort of remind me of the characters from Genki. Click below to see my comments.

Book 1

An expat refers to the States as “the States” (p. 24).

The book passes the Bechdel test and shows foreigners as multicultural. The American Christina “Tina” Rios is a (non-white) Latina New Yorker who speaks Spanish, too. The white English teacher is female and Australian.

Some non-Japanese nicknames are explained: Tina for Christina; Meg, May, and Maggie for Margaret; and Bill, Willie, and Billy for William (20).

The English teacher is referred to as Ms. Brown, teaching the use of Ms.–it’s safer than trying to guess Miss or Mrs. and is politically correct–as well as that foreigners actually have last names and most elementary/secondary teachers use “Ms./Mr. Last Name.” The English teacher in the elementary text Eigo Note‘s name is Mr. Simon, and it’s unclear if that’s his first or last name.

Taku: It’s your school badge. Tina: School what? Using an actual mode of questioning that Americans use. (33)

Most of the situations/pictures have girls and boys in equal numbers. (83)

Phrases you might actually hear: “You can do it.” “Just relax and feel the beat.” (84-85).

Tina ate sushi in New York (112).

Tina’s hatsumode wish is obviously to hook up with Taku (106).

Criticism:

“She can eat takoyaki.” Incorrect use of can. Allison is very likely to be physically able to eat takoyaki, unless she has an allergy. However, she may not like takoyaki, which is different than not being able to eat it.

Book 2

Tina’s American friends from New York are 1.5 generation kids: Japanese American Yuri, who was born in Osaka, and Indian American Sarah, who was born in India. Tina says that they all spoke different languages at home and English at school (6). Multicultural win!

A lesson about Sugihara Chiune, who helped get visas for Jewish refugees during WWII (32-5). This sounds corny, but this is a good lesson about taking a stand and helping others.

A piece on Cambodia and Taku’s dream to become a useful person (48). Maybe Taku’s dream is to spend as much time with Tina before she goes to America. 😉

Okinawa! I’m such a sucker for Okinawan music (48).

No more “We Are the World.” The music (Beatles, Cyndi Lauper) is stuff I actually know.

A lot of discussions about environmentalism. How to make an argument. How to thank people. How to apologize.

My conclusion: Taku, if you learn English, you can go be with Tina in America. ❤ Similarly, Tina is shown actually trying to learn Japanese, unlike Ms. Green in New Horizon, so I think this might work for them! Added bonus: A Japanese boy with a mutual crush on an American girl!

6 Responses

Actually, the textbook I had the school switch to this year (they have the ALTs chose the OC book) does refer to the U.S. as “the United States,” which made me very happy. But interestingly, while the Canadian teacher character is addressed as “Mr. Hall,” the Australian of Chinese descent ALT in Japan is addressed by his first name. ^_^;

I haven’t done JET or anything, but I’ve heard many stories of the kind of things that go on in English textbooks & classes in Japan – not to mention just seeing what kind of awkward phrasing Japanese tend to use in English.

This textbook sounds great! Hopefully it’s a sign that things are starting to change… Is this something that’s going to be used widely throughout the prefecture, do you know?

I do have a couple of random comments & questions.

1) What’s up, by the way, with Latinos being identified as white / non-white? I started noticing this on various official forms and surveys.. it’s the only ethnicity I’ve ever heard of being identified this way. You don’t ask Arabs or Native Americans or Pacific Islanders if they’re also white or non-white, even though, yes, some are definitely darker than others.

Anyway, since you mentioned it, I thought you might have insights here.

2) “School what?” and teaching Japanese kids that, yes, there is sushi in New York, and that yes, foreigners might already know how to use chopsticks as a result. Wonderful.

3) I know we’re taught that starting sentences with “but” is technically, officially, grammatically incorrect. But we start sentences with ‘but’ all the time…

4) Teaching sarcasm is a wonderful thing.

… It’s great to hear that there are some better books out there. I hope it’s a sign of changing times, and not a freak blip.

1. I always wondered that, too, until I met a friend whose ancestors were very fair-skinned (likely Spanish upperclass) but was Latina/Hispanic. Another friend is black and Latina, and there’s a lot of ethnic/racial variation in Brazil, too, including Brazilians of Japanese descent. I suppose race is all a construct, but Tina Rios’s skin is markedly darker than the “white” characters.

2. If only they got into the California roll and futomaki!

3. Well, if it’s a spoken conversation, then whatever, but this particular piece is more like a written essay, so it’s a bit odd.

Just to add to the reply, Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. Hispanic people didn’t exist before Christopher Columbus, there were Spaniards and Mayans and Aztecs and Toltecs and Olmecs, etc.

Thus Hispanic people are by and large bi-racial, a mixture of Spanish and indigenous peoples, or indigenous and African peoples. Many don’t think of themselves as “bi-racial” because the mix was so thorough it created a whole new culture. There are, of course, descendants of people who kept themselves “pure,” but through generations of living in Latin America, are culturally Hispanic.

I don’t identify with my race(s) because it doesn’t describe my experience in life, whereas my ethnicity does. I don’t know what it’s like to live as a Spaniard nor a Maya (which is the tribe I assume my non-Spanish ancestors came from given my country of birth). I live as someone who speaks the language of the Spaniards while eating the food of natives. What is that? A vibrant and delicious mix called Hispanic. The original melting pot. ^o^